Nicetown festival honors LGP Qua, rapper and community advocate killed in May

Even as she prepared to attend a community event honoring her late son, Tamara Davis said she hasn’t fully grappled with her loss.

Qidere Johnson, also known as rapper LGP Qua, was the victim of what police say was likely an attempted robbery. It happened earlier this year, on Mother’s Day — Davis said he had just given her a card and a gift basket.

“Truth be told, I really haven’t grieved properly for my child,” Davis said Saturday morning. “I’m still waiting for my son to come up the block.”

At the fifth annual Wingohocking Neighbors Day in Nicetown on Saturday, friends and neighbors remembered Johnson.

Davis said she felt proud of the person her son became during his 30 years of life, and of the positive impact he had on the community.

Johnson was a gifted student, a talented poet, and a respectful young man, Davis said, and by 2018 he was on his way to being a rap sensation.

» READ MORE: Two men charged with robbing, killing Philly rapper LGP Qua earlier this month

Under the name LGP Qua, Johnson rocketed to prominence when he released a track with will.i.am, titled “Insomniac (woke),” reaching an audience of millions.

His music spoke frankly about the challenges young Black people face, Davis said, and it did so while fusing old-school influences, like Nas and Public Enemy, with a fresh, contemporary message.

Davis remembered seeing how many people from the community turned out for her son’s funeral.

“I just looked at the sun and cried, ‘Oh, my God, Qidere, look at this,’” she said.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks said that almost as soon as Johnson started to see success, he began looking for ways to give back to the community.

Brooks offered one example: Johnson got an endorsement from the sneaker company Puma, and soon there was a U-Haul truck full of sneakers outside Johnson’s old elementary school, Edward T. Steel School. On top of that, he gave the school $10,000, she added.

The annual community gathering is a fitting tribute, she said Saturday. It grew “from a prayer circle” in 2018, where community members discussed ways to stave off violence and help one another.

“This is a way of honoring his work and his legacy,” Brooks said.

With car traffic closed off, nearly 100 vendors lined two blocks of Wingohocking Street, offering everything from hot food to healthcare resources.

Dancers performed on one stage, while two blocks away, a band played. The music, Brooks said, was a way for the community to “pass the torch” of positive impact to the next generation of talent.

Under an inflated castle archway, children rode on a train that made loops through the neighborhood and dropped them off just in time for the kids to rush into a bouncy house, get their faces painted, or dance while a 360 photo booth captured video.

“It was a big deal” to see LGP Qua rise to success, said John Williams, who was running the 360 photo booth from Keithie Love Productions. “You just need someone like him to inspire, to move you forward.”

“He stood for getting along,” Kaheim Burton, 41, said of Johnson. “All his music was positive.”

Burton said that as a deacon at the nearby Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church, he has spoken about Johnson to young men as they discussed the importance of having goals and turning away from violence.

“They just don’t understand what they’re doing to each other,” Burton said of those who shot and killed Johnson. “Without a vision, we perish.”

After the CAPA Jazz Ensemble finished its set, 16-year-old bass player Cheo Mangum, still wearing his rain-soaked instrument, said he was happy to be part of the event.

“He was a rapper who definitely did a lot for the community,” Mangum said.

Emmanuel Mathis said he knew Johnson, and he agreed.

“He was giving back to the youth,” Mathis said. “He was a very spiritual rapper.”